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1991 & 2018
LONG-RANGE
FOR THE
MODERN AGE
With ATACMS having been surpassed by Russia and China,
the U.S. doesn’t just want to catch up, it wants to dominate.
R
e storing the United States’ domi-
nance in long-range precision fires
tops the list of six modernization
priorities released by Army Chief
of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley and then-acting
Secretary Ryan D. McCarthy in October. If
you could go back in time and tell readers of
this magazine’s predecessor in the early 1990s
that this would be the case—that, 20 years
later, the Army had lost its edge in long-range
missiles, and to Russia, no less—they probably
would have been surprised.
Then, the United States was the last superpower
left standing, and the precise missiles that let it
strike important targets far behind enemy lines
were a crucial part of establishing its military
superiority in the post-Cold War order. Now,
as Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins acknowledged
at the 2017 Association of the United States
Army (AUSA) annual meeting, the United
States could be “outranged and outgunned” by
adversaries.
The Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS,
was the Army’s first long-range tactical missile.
It debuted in 1986 to attack high-value targets
like airfields, artillery and missile forces, supply
areas and command groups. ATACMS helped
the United States and its allies to quick victory
in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
Then-Army Acquisition Executive Stephen K.
Conver described ATACMS’ performance in
Operation Desert Storm in the May-June 1991
issue of Army RD&A Bulletin (this magazine’s
predecessor): “The system was used against
surface-to-air missile sites, logistics sites, Scud
[missile] positions, howitzer and rocket batter-
ies, and tactical bridges” and was viewed as a
“precious asset.” “Indications are that ATACMS
destroyed, or rendered inoperable, all of its
targets.”
The first iteration of ATACMS could hit sta-
tionary surface targets up to 100 miles away.
The second generation, Block 1A, added GPS
162 Army AL&T Magazine
April - June 2018